Surrogacy ban in the previous week has made caused huge impacts. The cabinet drafted ban on commercial surrogacy for Indian and foreigners. It is now legal only for couples who seek help from their relative to carry their child for them. Also, the couple should be in marriage knot for at least 5 years to give a try to the surrogacy treatment.
Here, the twist turn is not just the surrogacy ban but its consequences and their impacts on the medical thriving medical industry.
Commercial or trading surrogacy suggests a woman being financed for conceiving and giving birth to a child for some other couple.
In India, there are huge numbers of weaker section women who play as surrogates in the surrogacy treatment. Since the year 2002, when it was first legalized, the industry has bloomed at a rapid pace since then.
There are uncountable couples from the Arabian Gulf region who have opted for surrogacy treatments in India. Since, the treatment is illegal in Gulf countries, United Kingdom and Australia, India proves to be a much cheaper option for the procedure.
One of the renowned doctors, Jatin Shah, who led the surrogate birth of the actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son in the year 2013, states that “the move could be doomsday for the India’s commercial surrogacy industry.”
“I think a ban is too harsh,” Dr. Shah mentioned. “There should be regulation and license of all the clinics, regulations of how much the surrogate should be paid so there is no exploitation.”
By the end of the last year, foreign couples were approaching to Indian clinics to take advantage of the lower priced service. But soon there was a decision regarding the ban on the trend for foreign clients, followed by a prohibition on both Indian and non-Indian couples before a week ago.
Rita Bakshi, a surrogacy doctor residing in New Delhi, states that she was "numbed and shocked" when she came to know about the draft law.
"We were expecting our government to put good regulations in place but we were not expecting them to find an easy way out – because banning is the easiest way out," Dr. Bakshi mentioned. "[Surrogacy] is a need."
There are also other concerns attached to the ban that soon it can become a backstreet treatment and industry.
The statements from the specialists clearly state the dependency of the medical industry on surrogacy treatment. Surely, there will be objection and fuss from the specialists and during this time of disarray, we can just hope for some even-tempered decision to come out.
